The disclosure relates to frozen beverage machines. More particularly, the disclosure relates to fluid valving for frozen beverage machines.
Frozen beverage machines (including frozen carbonated beverage (FCB)) machines introduce a mixture of water and syrup to a freezing cylinder. The freezing cylinder forms a heat absorption heat exchanger of a refrigeration system. The freezing cylinder includes a beater or the like which is driven for rotation about an axis of the cylinder to maintain desired consistency of the frozen beverage within the cylinder. In FCB machines, carbon dioxide gas may be mixed with the water, syrup, and or their mixture at one or more locations. An exemplary water source is building potable water connected to the machine. An exemplary syrup source is a syrup bag (e.g., bag-in-box) or pouch (collectively “bag”) externally connected to the machine (alternatives including internal mounting for small bags). A carbon dioxide gas source for an FCB machine may be a tank externally connected to the machine.
In frozen beverage equipment it is critical to control the ratio of the flows of water and syrup. Exemplary flow control devices used in frozen beverage machines have assemblies that rely on an adjustable spring force acting on a sliding ceramic piston to create a variable orifice. An example is discussed as background in U.S. Pat. No. 8,424,725 of Boyer, Apr. 11, 2013. A technician may manually adjust the flow control assemblies with a screwdriver. The sticky syrup can solidify and jam the flow control device's piston requiring significant technician time to fix.